AI Regulation: If, What, and How

Merve Hickok

Lecturer, School of Information; Responsible Data and AI Advisor, MIDAS; Founder, AIEthicist.org; President and Research Director, Center for AI & Digital Policy.

Merve Hickok is the founder of AIethicist.org. She is a globally renowned, award-winning expert on AI policy, ethics and governance. Her contributions and perspective have featured in The New York Times, Washington Post, Guardian, CNN, Forbes, Bloomberg, Wired, Scientific American, The Atlantic, Politico, Protocol, Vox, The Economist and MIT Technology Review.

She is a distinguished educator, consultant and keynote speaker. Her work focuses on impact of AI systems on individuals and society – particularly the impact on fundamental rights, democratic values, and social justice.

Merve Hickok is the President and Policy Director at Center for AI & Digital Policy (CAIDP), deeply engaged in global AI policy and regulatory work. CAIDP educates AI policy practitioners and advocates across 120+ countries. Merve provides AI policy expertise to UNESCO, the Council of Europe, OECD, EU AI Office Working Group, and Hiroshima AI Friends Group, GPAI Tokyo Expert Support Center. She has provided testimony to the US Congress, Turkish National Assembly, State of California, New York City and Detroit City councils. She holds Council on Foreign Relations – Hitachi International Affairs Fellow and Chiba Institute of Technology Visiting AI Researcher positions.

At University of Michigan, she is a lecturer at School of Information, the Responsible Data and AI Advisor at Michigan Institute for Data Science, and an affiliated faculty at Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy (Science, Technology, and Public Policy Program).

Merve also works with several non-profit organizations globally to advance both the academic and professional She has been recognized by a number of organizations – most recently with Lifetime Achievement Award – Women in AI of the Year – 2023 , Top AI Leaders in Retail (Ethics & Compliance) – 2024 , Runner-up for Responsible AI Leader of the Year – 2022 (Women in AI) and as one of the 100 Brilliant Women in AI Ethics™ – 2021.

She provides consultancy and training to C-suite leaders, and public and private organizations on Responsible AI development, due diligence and governance. Previously, Merve held various senior roles in Fortune 100 companies for more than 15 years.